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Before the New Ulm Eagles host a 4-1 Tri-City United Titans football team on Friday, Eagles head football coach Derek Lieser had many reasons to be happy with how last Friday went.
He said that his team's performance in a 37-0 road shutout over Worthington last Friday night was comparable to the Eagles 30-0 blanking of Fairmont earlier in the season.
"We controlled all three phases," he said. "Offensively we were the most balanced as far as running and passing the ball. We had four different players with catches. We had a 42-yard field goal from our kicker Kaden Stueber and he was 100 percent on his extra-point kicks.
"So [with the shutout] it arguably was maybe our most complete game of the season. We played a very complete game."
Lieser said that Parker Ranweiler played well for the team, as did junior quarterback Owen Castleman.
"[Owen] had his best game of the year -- he had multiple touchdowns passes, with one going to [Jayden] Broste for 21 yards and another to his brother Miles of 20 yards," Lieser said.
Ranweiler had a 3-yard touchdown run, with Hunter Heil adding a 7-yard scoring run.
"Heil also had his best performance of the season," Lieser said. "He had a couple of really nice long runs and we had around 400 yards offense as we moved the ball pretty well.
"Our offensive line made a lot of holes for Parker and Hunter and George Gag had close to 50 yards rushing -- we continue to be balanced with our weapons -- we have a lot of players who can make big plays for us."
And the Eagles defense hung up a zero on an opponent for the second time this year as New Ulm improved to 4-1 on the season. That strong defensive showing included a 59-yard interception return for a touchdown by Landon Kapolcznski that made it a 37-0 game.
"We limited them to what they could do offensively and we continue to grow and evolve," Lieser said. "And on offense we did a much better job of finishing drives than we did last week which was huge."
The road win over the Trojans was one that broke a losing streak in Worthington.
"I told the guys that we have beaten them at home but have had poor luck in Worthington," Lieser said. "We got up 20-0 after the first quarter -- we came out of the locker room with the right mindset. It was a nice night of football for us."
The 4-1 Eagles host TCU at 7 p.m. Friday night at Eagles Stadium.
GREYHOUNDS RUN BACK TO ROUT NICOLLET
The New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds, who are are Mountain Lake Area on Friday night, spent this past Saturday night taking on the Nicollet Raiders at Johnson Field. It was a game where the Greyhounds allowed an early 6-0 lead and then proceeded to score 42 unanswered points for a 42-6 win in the nine-player game.
Alex Portner led the charge for Cathedral with 208 yards rushing and three scores, while Eli Anderson threw for two touchdowns, both to Josh Forstner.
JCC DOMINANT AGAINST MVL
In the first half of their football game against Minnesota Valley Lutheran last Friday night, Jackson County Central ran 36 offensive plays -- all for gains -- compared to 19 for the Chargers and three first downs.
The second half saw MVL run 28 offensive plays compared to 15 for the Huskies. But the first-half performance by JCC -- which was missing three starters in the game due to injury -- was too much to overcome.
Ben Riesgraf led the Chargers run game with nine carries for 44 yards and a touchdown, with quarterback Eli Schauland carrying the ball 10 times for 40 yards and Chase Tweit ending with 42 yards on nine carries.
Schauland totaled 68 yards passing in the game, going 4 for 9 passing.
The Chargers (3-2) will look for more offense when they hit the road to take on unbeaten Luverne (5-0) Friday night.